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Bubble-Town

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Maroochydore

"Maroochydore - a bad facelift and too much botox"

In 1999, Maroochydore and Cotton Tree was a sleepy fibro beach shack sea side town full of unemployed surfers, single Mums and retirees. With the boom years, from 2001 to 2007 many of the old shacks were pulled down as retirees sold out and low income people were priced out of the area by expensive high rise apartments.

The local shops have gone up market to cater for all the high end luxury apartments, most of which sit empty for the majority of the year. Cotton Tree slips between manically busy during the holidays, where there is hardly enough room to put your towel on the beach and morbidly quiet the rest of the year. For those people who own a shop, they have to make their money in the peak season and try to hold on till the next set of holidays, a difficult situation for many. If it rains a lot as it has for the last two summers, businesses start to fold.

Local employment is in either construction or hospitality, mainly labouring or waitressing. Locally wages are low. Due to the massive building boom construction has tapered off and is likely to remain subdued for a while. The other option is to drive the 120km to Brisbane for work. This can be a hit or miss affair as the road is only 2 lanes wide and often gridlocks. My partner has been caught in traffic jams for over two hours trying to make the one hour trip home. Also the two hour daily commute (on a good day) gets very boring and tiresome in a short space of time - and spending all your time in traffic is not why any one moves to the beach.

Most people are not originally from the Sunshine Coast, they have moved there from another major city with the dream of living the beach life. They dont know anyone and as a result the Sunshine Coast does not have much of a sense of community. Often people get lonely, miss their old friends and realise they dont actually like the beach that much. One real estate agent told me they get a lot of turn over sales from this, as people last about 2 years before they move back "home".

While I loved living on the Sunshine Coast it is turning into a little Gold Coast. I've always said its about 10 to 15 years behind the Goldie. So if you like that, you know what to expect from this area in the next few years.

If you stand on the beach and look at the ocean, its the most beautiful place on earth, if you turn around and look at the land, its a rather dull, souless place.

Great for

  • Great beaches

Not great for

  • Drug addicts and dealers
  • People living in their cars on the beach car parks
  • Not much of community feeling

Who lives here?

  • Families with kids
  • Tourists
  • Beach Lovers
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juggler

Hey Whats with the drug addicts and people living in cars? I have never seen them and we have a unit on the Esplanade at Cotton Tree, opposite both the parks and the beach. This is a little oasis away from the pretensions of Noosa, and Mooloolaba both of which remain however easily accessible. Plenty of community feeling I have noticed even being an intinerant local, talking to most folk is a bit like being in the Country when you are used to Melbourne, but it is such a REFRESHING change to have straight shooting helpful people around. Choose your happiness I say.

Digit

I agree with juggler, I live near the plaza and have lived here for just over 20 years. Through my teenage years I spent most nights down at the beach with friends and I don't remember seeing anyone living in cars? Every so often there would be a caravan or a combi but they would just be people getting some rest and moving on in the morning. I also have no idea where you live that you see drug dealers and addicts in maroochydore, but that's not something common that I've seen. And lastly as for the "not much of a community feeling" I think you've been talking to the wrong people. You'd be surprised how talkative people can be if your a nice person.

dansowden
dansowden

I actually think that the concept of 'people living in cars' is pretty cool. Think about it; these are the cool vans that people use to drive the length of our East Coast. Rising early to hit the water and surf the morning break for then to continue on their journey. Lets keep everything in context, my parents used to trip from Brisbane in the 70's to both the Sunshine and Gold Coasts + Byron on a long weekend. The classic beachside Odessey, perhaps this is something we all should do one in our lifetime

peterhinkley
peterhinkley

Times change and so does the demand for better roads and a better access to everything you NEED, not WANT.
Give this town a few more years and read up on what the local council have planned. This information will help you decide on whether Marrochydore is the place for you to re-settle or retire. It's not that expensive right now, but it will climb on the ladder of places to visit, before 2020 comes along, believe you me. As an ex fast food manager and a person who has traveled Australia, Maroochydore is the mirrored image of Coffs Harbour NSW.
I'm not there to talk about that place though.
Infrastructure takes quite a bit of time to plan, construct, implement and action. As far as I can see, there has been a lot of good planning and organizing to get it where it is for now, but in the future, Maroochydore will be a booming tourist town with a whole lot more to offer. So be patient and we'll all reap the rewards.

The opinions expressed within this review are those of the individual and not those of Homely.com.au.
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